A Romanticized View of the 70s?

<< The bit that really jarred for me though was the idea of kids grabbing Pop Tarts before sitting down to watch Saturday morning telly, although it might well have been true in America. If Pop Tarts had made it over here by then they certainly weren't on my radar. I don't think we even had a toaster. >>

Pop tarts were definitely popular when I was a kid, along with sugary cereals and lots of other things that help to explain rising obesity rates in the U.S.

No, Diana you were not alone. In my neighborhood thats all we did was play outside in our neighborhood. All day and everyday during Summer when it was not too hot out.

I cherish those days.
It was true adventure. We would walk to the local Piggly Wiggly and Dairy Queen 5 miles away through the Woods.

And I could actually buy blow pops and bubble gum on my own at Piggly and drink a chocolate chip milkshake at DQ on my own ( with no adults around).

That was a big deal/

Kids today seem to just want to sit in and Post on Facebook and Twitter

I entered 1970 as a 12 year old. I left as 22 year old. They were probably the most important 10 years of my life. They were certainly the most memorable. In 1970 was when I heavily got into music. It almost monopolized my whole life until I met my wife in 1980. I played in a band. I had my first girl friend. I watched cinema change drastically with the first R and X rated movies on a wide scale. We got cable TV in 1974. I learned how to drive in 1975. I saw gas go to $1 a gallon and had to sit in line to buy it doing the whole even and odd day thing. I went to college and barely graduated. I got my first job in 1977 working for my uncle. I had my first family loss in my grandmother in 1974.

I saw technology make, for the time, big strides. We didn't have the Internet so we spent a lot of time outside and with people. We still had drive ins and local soda shops. Ma and Pa stores were the rule rather than the exception. We had violence but nothing like what we have today. We certainly never had a 9/11.

Disco sucked and FM radio started to take over from AM as music began to splinter away from the top 40 format. Stations started specializing in a particular kind of music like oldies, prog rock, dance, country and so on. The days of hearing the Carpenters and Led Zep on the same station were gone.

It wasn't as simple a time as the 60s but a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was older and my life wasn't as simple. I think that's true for everybody which is why so many people romanticize their early years. They didn't have as many responsibilities, if any at all, so the world was simpler. As a kid in the 60s, I played army and sci fi games. My biggest problem was passing my tests in school and keeping kids from beating the crap out of me. When I got older I figured out what real problems were. Suddenly, it didn't matter what era it was. Having to earn a living just to eat and have a roof over my head trumped any "problems" I had as a 10 year old in 1967.

I both loved and hated the 70s because they didn't go out the way they came in if for no other reason than the life of a 12 year old is a lot different from the life of a 22 year old.

As a 57 year old, I'm not sure I'd want to go back to the 70s.

I'm not sure I'd want to go back to ANY era besides the one I'm in now.

I hear you, Jack. That format really is annoying. That's why I warned that it's click bait. Sometimes I can't resist, though. The 70s were the main decade that I grew up in. That "if you can remember it you weren't there" usually applies to the late 60s, implying you were too stoned to remember anything. Since I was a kid or young teen for most of the 70s I think I can be forgiven for remembering it. The 80s are another matter

<< Crime rates were LOWER were I was, and I was like all over California! >>

Steve, are you sure about that? In most parts of the U.S., crime rates rose steadily in the 70s and 80s and began declining in the 90s. I'm not sure if that downward trend is still continuing, or will for much longer, but in general the 70s and 80s were more dangerous than the 2000s, at least in terms of street crime.

I was 16 in 1970 - and the start of the 70's for me was horrible - I won't go into details - but by 1972 things changed in a big way -
yes, Steve, I too remember spending many an evening listening to "Days of Future Passed" -

In 1973 I was introduced to this song:

In 1975, I got on a train in Montreal, stopped in Toronto, and then continued on to Vancouver, and stayed there until 1977.
In 1976 while in Vancouver, I had my heart broken - I was hopelessly in love with someone who liked me as a friend only. Sigh....

In 1977 I moved to Toronto - Vancouver had changed me forever and I was glad to return to the East again -

There are many gaps in my memory from those years - yes, I partied hard but I had lots and lots of fun times, and wrote a ton of poetry back then

If I could turn back the clock, I would do a lot of things differently - though I no longer have any regrets

Exactly, Sal!

Although I was only 8 in 1970, the same was true in my hood and community. I loved the late sixties and all of the seventies as well. My whole teenage/jr. high/high school years were in the 70's.

I'd go back with ya!


Terra

I like this thread, it makes me feel younger.

Thank you.

Application of 1970s technology!

Application of 1970s technology!

1970s technology!

YEP!

BTW the basic concept even predates the 1970s.

A LOT of things happened in the 1970s! MPUs, Solidstate high density memory, and many other things. Without them, computers would cost thousands of dollars just to SHIP, and be huge, and expensive.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s._8Gbytes.jpg

The above picture shows a micro SDHC chip on top of a core matrix that holds LESS than 1/9 BILLION as much memory. The SDHC may be like 1990s technology, but it is directly based on 1970s technology. The other, of course, is like 1950s technology. SO, 1950s to 1990s, about 1/9 BILLION. 1970s to 1990s about 1/125000, or about 72000 times the information density.

Steve

I liked Dazed and Confused too. Richard Linklater is one of my favorite directors in general. That movie presents a very different view of the 70s than the one in the article I posted, one slightly closer to the way I remember things.

I feel exactly the same way. I often think of my dad (who died in 1991, which isn't all that long ago in the grand scheme of things) and how he would often have to drive repeatedly around the block to find a parking space close to the Post Office when he had to tax the car, because he couldn't walk very far. He'd be astonished to know that it can be done in a couple of minutes without even leaving the house now.

My father-in-law is still very much around, and it amazes him that he can sit my kitchen and talk to his brother across the world in Australia via Skype, seeing and hearing him as if he were in the room with us. I was 6 in 1970, which is plenty old enough to remember what life was like before we could do these things and I'm often amazed by them too. Father-in-law did make me strangle a laugh not so long ago though, when he asked me in all seriousness to see if my sister-in-law was at home by checking Google street view to see if her car was outside her house